


Fire

by perfectcosima



Series: Dead Dog Marathon [2]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-01
Updated: 2014-12-01
Packaged: 2018-02-27 17:45:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2701736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfectcosima/pseuds/perfectcosima
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fic #2 for my "dead dog" marathon. Featuring Delphine Cormier.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fire

Delphine had never feared fire. Admired it, maybe, gazing hypnotized into the last glowing embers in a sandy pit, but the primal urge to flee, or to smother the growing flames, had never overtaken her. At least up until now.

The fire alarms are blaring, overpowering every coherent thought in her brain, and she’s confused, dazed, breathing in lungfuls of smoke that she coughs out in frequent bursts. She focuses on her purpose, finding a way out, finding fresh air, breathing, surviving. She makes her way over to the exit, swiping her keycard victoriously through the lock.

A red light flashes, and the click of the lock never comes.

PERSONNEL NOT AUTHORIZED

Her hand connects with the door, slamming into it repeatedly, the metal clanging loudly, a signal to the nonexistent search party.

“Help! Aidez-moi! Hilfe!”

It takes her a while to realize the truth of the situation, the real reason why she hears nobody trying to reach her, to save her from this lab, this prison, this blazing hell. _Her parents were killed in a fire._ Cosima’s words to her about Rachel are clear in her head, clearer than her own jumbled thoughts. This is no accident, no freak lab fire, no technological malfunction.

_Get out!_

_I love you._

_Stay with me._

She’s replaying all of her memories, holding onto her heart, her love, her Cosima. It’s not clear which is killing her more quickly, the smoke, or the realization that the last words she had heard from her mouth were a request that she couldn’t oblige.

“I can’t,” she echoes the reply that was on her lips when she boarded the plane, the last words that she had said to the dreadlocked girl. The words that had resulted in complete radio silence on both ends for the past month.

She slides down the locked door, pulling out her phone and dialing the number, the one she’d typed in a million times, never daring to press send.

_This is Cosima, I can’t make it to the phone right now, so please leave a message, and I’ll get back to you._

“Cosima…” Delphine clutches her phone desperately, overtaken by a coughing fit before she’s able to continue. “I love you. I miss you. I’m so sorry.” The words are tumbling from her mouth faster than she can think of them. Her usually silky smooth voice is hoarse, but she continues to speak, hoping that Cosima will pick up the phone, a foolish hope, but what hopes of a dead girl aren’t? “I won’t be coming home, ma cherie. I won’t be going anywhere. Your sister made sure of that. But we’ll meet again, my love, I know it. I’ll watch you from the sky, and I’ll stay safe and warm in your heart, just like you are in mine, because we’re forever. We’re large, we’re infinite, we contain everything. We’re the universe, and the universe is us, and nothing will ever pull us apart.”

She continues on, rambling past the beeping end of the recording, talking to her love, to her life, to her death, her words slowing, punctuated by gasps, and hacking coughs.

She talks until she doesn’t speak anymore, doesn’t breath anymore, until her heart no longer beats.

When the firefighters find her, the fire is out, and Rachel makes a call to her sister, full of fake pity, secretly triumphant. Nothing that she says matters, because Cosima already knows.


End file.
